Posted by Matt Purdue
Call them Ponytailgate and Joggergate.
Two bubbling controversies present important lessons for PR folks: Whatever your clients do or say in public can come back to haunt them.
First, Ponytailgate. University of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert was caught on video apparently roughing up some BYU opponents in a recent match. The real trouble involves a clip of Lambert yanking an opponent down by her ponytail. Somehow, someway the video spread around the interwebs like wildfire, giving Lambert an anti-Warholian taste of what it’s like to be infamous for 15 minutes.
Lambert had no business going rogue on her opponent (despite that fact that video evidence shows Lambert getting elbowed in the stomach at one point). But does our culture really have any business blowing this completely out of proportion? This was a women’s college soccer match, not the Super Bowl.
As a former sportswriter, I’m painfully aware that dirty play is part of almost every sport. In fact, baseball players from a young age are taught to take out the second baseman to break up a double play. So why are we picking on Lambert? I don’t have that answer, but it’s sickeningly unfair.
On the other hand, speaking of going rogue, Sarah Palin is complaining that her image on the cover of Newsweek is blatantly sexist. To accompany a feature on Palin’s political ramifications, Newsweek ran a cover shot of her in jogging shorts. The magazine lifted it from a profile that previously ran in Runner’s World, hence the shorts. Now Palin is crying foul. I cry bull. Palin’s a public figure who recently ran for vice president of the most powerful nation on earth. Anything she says or does is newsworthy. Deep down, Palin knows this. But she’ll play the victim every chance she gets, apparently.
For PR pros, though, the message is clear. Our culture is becoming more and more voyeuristic by the day, and a magazine cover shot or YouTube clip are worth much more than 1,000 words. Professional communicators beware.
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